There never was a time in European history when the mass of people thought so little for themselves, and depended so much (for the ultimate form of their society) upon the conclusions and vocabulary of a restricted leisured body.

Long before the last third of the nineteenth century a newspaper, if it was of large circulation, was everywhere a venture or a property dependent wholly upon its advertisers. It had ceased to consider its public save as a bait for the advertiser. It lived (in this phase) entirely on its advertisement columns.

The ability to own property and thereby to establish a means of independence from others—whether those others are feudal lords or the modern government—makes it possible for the property owner to assert political independence. Sometimes it is said that property is a precondition of democracy, because property enables a citizen to speak freely and participate in public affairs without concern that political participation will undermine one’s economic well-being.